


To The End Of The World

by sugarpixi



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26207431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarpixi/pseuds/sugarpixi
Summary: Clerith Week 2020 Day 1- Courting.The promise of one date leads to a promise of a lifetime.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, cloud strife/aerith
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	To The End Of The World

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Squenix does. 

To The End of The World   
Clerith Week 2020 Day 1- Courting 

It was supposed to be one date.

What transpired was anything but. The truth was, he didn't know what a real date was. When Aerith suggested escorting her home was a date, he wasn't so sure she knew either. Still, thinking back, perhaps it was. It was like an unorthodox, dangerous, fun, good first date. The word good was important, he remembered a conversation before about a bad date and his experience was anything but.  
Who knew being a body guard to a stranger was what he needed after being a hardened mercenary? Compared to what he was doing before he fell unceremoniously, just being in Aerith's company felt lighthearted and it felt like they were both playing a game. They did not remain strangers for long. In what seemed like a short time she opened up to him, and he to her. He even met her mother. He didn't want the night to end. That is something he wouldn't say out loud, or tell her. Although, inside he wondered if she had read him like a book, saw how hesitant he was to leave her side. 

That was until they saw the carriage. Their first date extended right into a second one. She had him experiencing a cocktail of feelings on many occasions and once again it flared and heightened his senses. They were to part, she was to go back home then she would be safe. He would go back to being a mercenary, back to his lonesome. He would have bittersweet memories of bad jokes, hidden smiles, held-in laughter. There was no way he could forget those eyes, that smile, that voice, the smell of flowers that lingered around her like an aura. Her safety mattered the most. That was his job, after all. 

Still, it seemed the universe had plans for them. When Aerith got herself involved Cloud knew it was futile to stop her. Put mildly, it could be annoying, perhaps even frustrating if it really did get under his skin . But instead, he found himself swept away in her efforts to save Tifa. He could have saved his friend alone, he didn't want to put Aerith into anymore dangerous situations. Besides, he was happy that she was there. A slight guilt flooded him for feeling that way. Wasn't it bad to feel happy when he was putting her into danger? When he promised to bring her home to her mother? That guilt melted away in a flurry of activities that involved a tournament, physical challenges, dancing and dressing in drag. By the end it left him wondering how things would happen any other way, made him realize just exactly how sick and deranged Corneo was and grateful that Aerith insisted that they rescued Tifa.

The moment all three of them came into contact Cloud became simultaneously the ex-soldier mercenary and Aerith's bodyguard. It was at that moment that he realized that one date became null and void. It was at the moment that it hit him that he was going to be Aerith's long-term body guard. For try as he might,it seemed they were bound to cross paths, were it to be fate, or Aerith or even himself that insists that their place was with one another He knew... He felt it. That there was no place safer for her than with him. 

Cloud saves Aerith. Aerith saves Cloud. Every time marked a milestone in their developing relationship. It was a pattern that organically developed between them. As they did so they got to know one another. They got to know themselves. Cloud's mother told him that was the nature of dating. He heard the same thing from someone else as well. She looked at him like a puzzle, wanting to solve him, yet saying things that eerily rung true to him. Did she know he felt the same? The more he felt he knew her, the more mysterious she got. But that didn't matter-- just like that deal of one date. It was a debt long been paid and paid in ten-fold at that.  
After all they had gone through, Cloud was left with a resolve and a promise to himself from what started out as a playful deal for one date. He wanted to get to know her more, he wanted to open up more, he wanted to learn more about the person he is around her. Even now when the future seemed heavy on their shoulders and there were many unknowns... Cloud knew one thing for sure-- it was that no matter what happened, he would be there for Aerith. 

A/n: I wondered how to capture this word properly a lot before diving in. But it also seemed to just come to me and as I finished I have another silly way I could write to this prompt. The idea of this fic is really to highlight how what really started them along a path was this deal for one date and how the distinction between simply dating and courting are the end goals. It of course has Cloud subtlety deciding that he wants to continue to get to know Aerith, be with her, and grow with her.


End file.
